1. Field of the Invention
The present invention concerns devices and systems for supporting plastic bags and their contents by hanging, especially plastic bags having a reclosable seal.
2. Background of the Invention
Flexible plastic bags have long been used for holding, protection, and/or storage of various contents including, but not limited to, food, hardware, clothes, chemicals, paper goods and many other items.
Certain of the previous bags have an additional thickness of material near the top of the bag. One common reason for the additional thickness is the presence of an interlocking rib and groove bag closure mechanism near the top of the bag. Such a closure mechanism is efficient and effective, but does not itself solve the problem of efficiently arranging and maintaining the bags and their contents during storage.
Some previously known plastic bags present an integral hanger, or a hoe in the bag material, for hanging the bag during storage. The hanger or hole was typically located in a region of the bag extending from that region where the bag holds its contents. This extension region uses extra material, and consumes extra space, without supporting the content-holding function of the bag.
Meanwhile, other previous plastic bags that had neither a hanger nor a hole were required to be laid on something for storage. The resulting stacked storage takes considerable space and is correspondingly inefficient. Additionally, the contents of the stacked bags are not easily viewed while individual bags other than the topmost can only be removed with difficulty.
It is also previously known to store bags vertically by hanging them from a rack or support. The plastic bags so stored exhibit a perforation of the bag or an integral attached hanger. Because their was no complementary interaction of the bag closure mechanism and the hanging mechanism, the maintenance of the closure of the bag along its seal was not assured simply because the bag was hung.
Previously known plastic bags have not been consistently and reliably removable from their hangers, openable and closable, and returnable to the same hanger multiple times without undue wear or deterioration that may result in leakage of the bags' contents.